Petru Lucinschi
Biography
Petru Chiril Lucinschi was Moldova’s second President. From 1971 Lucinschi was a member of the Executive Committee (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Moldavian SSR. From 1978 to 1989 he was the first secretary of the Chişinău branch of the Communist Party of Moldova. In 1978 he worked for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Moscow, where he remained until 1986. From 1986 to 1989 Lucinschi was second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Tajikistan. Upon his return to the Moldavian SSR in 1989 he became first secretary of the Communist Party of Moldova. He was Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament throughout the 1990s.